It looks like Sony’s having a fire sale to get rid of excess inventory. The recently announced, and much appreciated, price cut from $599 to $499 in the US of the 60GB PS3 will last only as long as console supplies last. Kaz Hirai, in the interview linked below, says that Sony is no longer producing this 60GB PS3 model, and therefore the two-SKU approach will only last as long as supplies of the 60GB model last.

We know that the 60GB PS3 model sold in Europe is the one without the Emotion Engine chip. As is the new 80GB PS3 soon to be released in NA. So if you were planning on getting a PS3 with better PS2 backwards compatibility, time is running out!

So Sony seems to be doing a bit of sleight of hand here. They proudly proclaim a $100 price cut, but don’t tell us that it will only last until supplies run out. Not exactly being forthright with the consumer there, are we Sony? On the other hand, we don’t know the whole story. Maybe, once supplies run out, Sony will drop the price of the 80GB PS3 in order to keep the PS3 price at $499? It would be nice, but it would also tick off all those 60GB purchasers who could have waited a month for an 80GB version.

So I have to say that, once again, Sony have done themselves a disservice by not revealing the whole truth. When are they going to learn?

VG TV [around the 1:50 mark]

Thanks to Brian Hoyt who gave us this video link in this PS3 price cut discussion.